CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaenvironment-variables
Codey McCodeface
Codey McCodeface

Reputation: 3028

Java settings, classpath and environment variables

I'm not sure if it is best practice but I add MySQL-connector jar to the extensions directory of my Java install directory to I can easily connect to MySQL databases.

I also set environment variables to point to various directories so that I can develop on different machines and only define environment variables locally and code doesn't have to be modified for file paths.

In either case of the above I find that unless I reboot my computer java does not recogise either. What happens during a reboot to Java? Is some config file updates by a java process? Can you update this without having to reboot?

To test this I have created a new environment variable on both Mac (adding to .MacOS/environment.plist), Linux (Ubuntu 12.04) and windows 7 (via control panel). I then used System.getenv("TestVar"); which returns null. Running set from the command line shows it exists though. After a reboot System.getenv("TestVar"); returns the expected value.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1890

Answers (2)

Codey McCodeface
Codey McCodeface

Reputation: 3028

As far as setting environment variables goes the on Ubuntu a log out is required

https://superuser.com/questions/339617/how-to-reload-etc-environment-without-rebooting

Upvotes: 2

amicngh
amicngh

Reputation: 7899

Ultimately your goal is to include jar files in CLASSPATH . its up to you how include jars in classpath but this is not good practice to put jars inside extensions directory . While running your program modify CLASSPATH value .

 java -cp jar1:jar2:jar3:dir1:. HelloWorld
 java -classpathjar1:jar2:jar3:dir1:. HelloWorld

Upvotes: 2

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